he neck.

The idiot preened himself like a girl. Drink and vanity had primed him
for any folly. He drove so carelessly for a bit that he nearly put us
into a ditch. We passed several cottages and at the last he slowed
down.

'A friend of mine lives here,' he announced. 'Gertrud would like to
see me in the fine clothes which the most amiable Herr has given me.
Wait for me, I will not be long.' And he scrambled out of the car and
lurched into the little garden.

I took his place and moved very slowly forward. I heard the door open
and the sound of laughing and loud voices. Then it shut, and looking
back I saw that my idiot had been absorbed into the dwelling of his
Gertrud. I waited no longer, but sent the car forward at its best
speed.

Five minutes later the infernal thing began to give trouble--a nut
loose in the antiquated steering-gear. I unhooked a lamp, examined it,
and put the mischief right, but I was a quarter of an hour doing it.
The highway ran now in a thick forest and I noticed branches going off
now and then to the right. I was just thinking of turning up one of
them, for I had no anxiety to visit Schwandorf, when I heard behind me
the sound of a great car driven furiously.

I drew in to the right side--thank goodness I remembered the rule of
the road--and proceeded decorously, wondering what was going to happen.
I could hear the brakes being clamped on and the car slowing down.
Suddenly a big grey bonnet slipped past me and as I turned my head I
heard a familiar voice.

It was Stumm, looking like something that has been run over. He had his
jaw in a sling, so that I wondered if I had broken it, and his eyes
were beautifully bunged up. It was that that saved me, that and his
raging temper. The collar of the postman's coat was round my chin,
hiding my beard, and I had his cap pulled well down on my brow. I
remembered what Blenkiron had said--that the only way to deal with the
Germans was naked bluff. Mine was naked enough, for it was all that
was left to me.

'Where is the man you brought from Andersbach?' he roared, as well as
his jaw would allow him.

I pretended to be mortally scared, and spoke in the best imitation I
could manage of the postman's high cracked voice.

'He got out a mile back, Herr Burgrave,' I quavered. 'He was a rude
fellow who wanted to go to Schwandorf, and then changed his mind.'

'Where, you fool? Say exactly where he got down or I will wring your
neck.'